Encounters: Travel and Money in the Byzantine World

The study of Byzantine coins is essentially the study of communications and movement of people and ideas, within and outside Byzantium. This highly illustrated and accessible volume focuses on over 50 coins to explore the empire's political and socio-economic development and cultural relations with its neighbours. It looks variously at city markets and the exchange of goods between different parts of the Byzantine Empire; at Byzantines travelling to the West; including trade between the Svear and the Romans and trade with Britain; Byzantines travelling to the East, including Armenia, Anatolia and China; the Byzantine legacy in the Islamic world, including the cult of Alexander the Great; and Western merchants in the East, particularly Venetians. The study concludes with the story of the late Byzantine emperors travelling to the West, and the impact their journeys had on western European art. AUTHOR: Eurydice S. Georganteli is curator of the Barber Institute Coin Collection and Lecturer in Numismatics at the University of Birmingham. Eurydice Georganteli studied archaeology and history of art at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Oxford. Between 1992 and 1998 she worked for the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, as well as special research assistant in the Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum. She has been a Byzantine Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Centre,Washington D.C. and a Robinson Scholar at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, before her current appointment at the University of Birmingham as curator of the Barber Institute coin collection and university lecturer in numismatics. Her publications focus on studies of coin finds, monetary circulation and medieval art. Barrie Cook is curator of Medieval and early modern coinage in the Department of Coins and Medals at The British Museum. He has published extensively on medieval coinage. 80 colour illustrations